


When I let the water take me

by evarosen, pillstaker



Category: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack and Angst, M/M, Skynet is still a jerk, and he still ships it, the Kyle-as-a-Terminator fic nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evarosen/pseuds/evarosen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pillstaker/pseuds/pillstaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Come with me if you want to live." What if those words had been uttered not in the past, but in the future? And no by anybody trying to preserve mankind's hope, but to obliterate it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kyle doesn't think much of it when the soldier tells him John wants to see him. John has been distant the last few months; he sometimes stares at Kyle with an expression that makes him wonder if he's about to...

Well.

John always seems to know about those things; but Kyle likes to believe he would warn him if he knew he would soon be dead. He remembers all the times he's asked John what he would do after the war, and how he's always been vague or brushed him off with a joke; and doesn't quite dare to consider the other reason why John would want to avoid his company, so near the end.

He's lost in these thoughts, so he doesn't notice the part of the tunnels the soldier is leading him to is a deserted one, until he stops walking and there's no one waiting for them.

The soldier turns around, and smiles at him; there's something cold and calculating on it. Kyle's hand goes immediately to his gun.

"If you think you can take me alone, that shows very poor planning on your part," he says. He doesn't know this soldier well, but if he's made it into John's unit, it means he's been checked and cleared as not being an infiltrator. Of course, there's always the attempts of climbing the chain of command by getting rid of the ones above you; and though no one's been so far enough of a fool to try it with Kyle, he knows it's happened.

He's been to the executions.

The soldier's smile only widens at that. "I'm not 'taking you' in the sense you seem to think, Kyle Reese. I'm going to open your eyes, and then making you an offer, and then...we'll see." He's fast, faster than anyone Kyle has ever seen, even the skin jobs; he has a hand around Kyle's neck before he can even see him move. But he doesn't press down with enough force to cut off his air supply. It is worse than that; Kyle can feel his skin crawling and melting away; and he tries to scream; but the--Terminator, God, he's gotten himself caught by a Terminator, is this what John knew would happen?--the Terminator moves around him and clasps a hand over his mouth.

"Shhh," it says, and the voice, the fingers brushing his hair, are such an absurd copy of the times John has tended to him being injured or sick that he knows, he knows this thing has been watching them for who knows how long and waiting to strike.

"In a second, you'll see," it adds, on its own voice, as Kyle trashes on its grip; but then it's John's voice again on his ear, when his legs start giving up on him, "you'll see what I've kept from you, and for the first time in your miserable life, you'll have a choice."

*

The last battle goes as smoothly as John had been confident it would. Kyle can see it now; how every word and touch is calculated to produce the desired effect, how John regards him as one would a favorite working tool.

He's not sure if he's relieved he hasn't immediately dissapeared with the timeline's alteration. Skynet's told him John's already an aberration in the space-time continuum; a self-created being, in a sense. Such as Skynet itself. 

He's seen, without being told, that this is the reason Skynet almost regards him as an equal; their existences are intertwined beyond comprehension by this point. 

But then again, so were his and John's.

John feigns surprise at the sight of his mother's picture, still on Kyle's possesion. Kyle pretends to be bashful about it; there's some part of him, still in the process of being buried, that wants to shake him and ask him why. If he still thinks is worth it. If he would be capable to look a Kyle in the eye and tell him exactly what he knows will happen. 

If he truly doesn't know Kyle would have loved him enough to go through with it anyway.

But Kyle doesn't do any of these things, because the time is short and Skynet's waiting to strike. So he grasps John's forearm for a final, parting time, and climbs the time machine to thwart everything they've fought for.

 _You will come with me if you want to live_ , Skynet had told him, as every cell of his body writhed in agony, _if you are strong enough, to do what has to be done, at his side, like you've always wanted_.

And he's strong; as strong as John. He's prepared him to be.

Kyle closes his eyes as the light engulfs him, and prepares himself for his new destiny.


	2. Chapter 2

Skynet was confident John would be too distracted looking at Kyle to notice him moving closer; and it had been right.

But it had also been right when he called John a creature outside time; and as such, when the timeline opened to swallow Kyle, it also opened like a dam on John's brain. Changing timelines flooded in his mind, and brough him to his knees before Skynet could seize him.

But not before the rest of the team saw the unnatural glow on Skynet's hands.

While the battle took place around him, his people falling one after another in their quest to protect him, John crawled toward the time machine, trying first unsuccessfully to stop its course; but the process came to an end and was finished. He swore, and turned it back on; the noises around him had ceased, and Skynet stood alone among the wreckage.

John climbed into the platform, the crackle of the magnetic field louder than it had been when Kyle was on it. It made sense; John hadn't even shed his weapons.

"Don't be dramatic, John. And don't tell me you've forgotten; the resulting explosion..."

John closed his eyes. All his people were dead; the last battle lost, and Kyle...

"Then at least I'll take you with me, you bastard."

The rings started girating faster.

The explosion was indeed devastating.

*

Kyle's arrival on the alley was smooth and graceful; the time vortex didn't spit him out shivering and twitching like it would have before. 

He walked out of the alley, and the T-1000 was waiting for him. They fell into step together, no need for words. They recognized each other.

Breaking and entering into the store was also easy.

*

Kyle was making a good show of running around and pretend being chased. _I've only done it my whole life_ he thought in amusement, while he waited for her to arrive.

And arrive she did; Sarah Connor, his mission always. That had not changed.

She opened the door of the truck, and he thought he made a good impression of being disconcerted, also, if only because suddenly having her in the flesh in front of him _was_ disconcerting.

He stared at her. She repeated the words ( _those were supposed to be my lines_ , he thought, but he wasn't saying what he was supposed to never again, wasn't to be anyone's mouthpiece ever again), and some small part of him regretted she would die disappointed on him.

He got to his feet, ready to go toward her...

...and a tall figure dressed as a policeman ran toward them from the other side, and emptied their gun on him.

*

Sarah shot at the newcomer, and he ducked expertly; the bullet merely grazing his arm.

His blood was red. Human.

"Sarah! Sarah, get away from him!" the man dressed as a policeman yelled; and Kyle got up from the floor.

The man tried to shoot at him again, but he had no more bullets; Kyle was over him in just a couple of steps.

The man threw his gun at him; it bounced off his head.

Kyle tilted his head and rolled his eyes. "Really, John?"

John, proving he didn't know when to admit defeat, tried to punch him. Kyle avoided him easily and grabbed him by the neck.

"Came to finish the job yourself, John?" he said, nuzzling his scarred cheek while John struggled ineffectually. "Or you've finally understood, that this has no end? We can't stop it, but we can..."

Sarah's shot almost took him off his feet. John fell to the ground, gasping for air; but he recovered quickly, and darted on her direction.

"What the hell is that?" she said. "That's not a T-1000."

"I'll tell you on the way. Let's go, go!" John climbed in the truck after her, and they ran over the T-1000 on their way out.

Kyle watched them go in amusement. 

"Where are you going, John? Have you forgotten I'm supposed to follow you? You're my boy! You're my beautiful boy!" he called after them.

He let the T-1000 chase them alone. He knew where to find them; he had no hurry.


	3. Chapter 3

_John recalled his mother telling him what Kyle had taught her about time travel._

_**It's like being born,** he'd said to her._

_Of course, Kyle had always had an optimistic streak. Both times John had tried, it had felt like dying._

_Once he was done spasming on the pavement, he had about two seconds to marvel he was still alive._

_"Hey, man, are you ok?" the homeless man said. John struggled to his feet. Defeated by Skynet or not, he wasn't going to put _those_ clothes on._

_He heard the sirens, and gave the homeless man his best terrifying smile._

_"Start screaming," he said._

*

"What do you mean, that was Kyle? How is that possible?" Sarah said.

"I don't know," John said, clutching at his arm. "I don't even know when it happened. When the time displacement unit was activated, I..." he tried to pinpoint a formed picture, a defined image between all he'd seen, and the world started swimming anew. " Pull over, I'm gonna be sick," he said. Sarah had barely had time to slam the breaks before he was on his knees at the side of the road, puking whatever was left on his stomach.

"Damn it, we don't have time for this!" Sarah said. "The T-1000 will be catching up with us any second now!"

Pops got out of the back, lifted John like a sack of potatoes, and unceremoniously dropped him in the passenger seat once again.

John wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and gave him a bleary look. "You lot hasn't gotten more careful since the last time I was manhandled by one," he said. He grasped his forehead again. "Ow! Oh, fucking deja-vu."

"But if Kyle is, by all purposes, as good as dead now, how are you here?" Sarah insisted. "I mean, you do know...?" she said, looking suddenly worried.

"Of course I know," he said. He frowned, trying to think again. "Skynet said something about me being out of time. I suppose he meant it on the outsider sense, instead of the soon to be dead one. Not that it matters anymore." He looked out the window. "Skynet has truly taken everything from me this time," he muttered. He laughed, short and mirthless and a little insane.

Sarah turned toward him, and shook his arm. "John. John!"

"I'm ok," he said, blinking tiredly. "Where are we going?"

"We prepared a place to wait for the T-1000..." she started. She lowered the speed, and turned toward him with an assessing look. When John widened his eyes at her slightly in a '...well?' gesture, she reached to touch his forehead. "You're bleeding," she said.

He shook his head. "That was already there," he said. He looked at her stained hand when she removed it. "Well, a little bit might be new. But don't worry, I'm ok. The time travel banged me up a little. I think I was gone before the big explosion, but some of it caught me still," he said. "I guess I'm lucky I didn't end up like the guy from 'The Fly'."

"With a mutant head? Is that possible?" she said.

"No, I mean fussed to met...oh, right, wrong year," he muttered. "Well, two years from now, there will be a remake. I watched it the night before I entered a time machine for the first time. Don't let me do that," he said. "If I happen to exist later. Am I confusing you? I'm confusing myself."

Sarah looked back at Pops. "I think he banged his head," she said.

"If John Connor travelled in time before, in theory, there's a possibility..."

Several bullets pierced the back of the truck.

John peered back through the holes.

"I disabled that fucker's car before I went in the store!" he said. "Where did it get another...?" the he remembered. The other cops. "Damn, this is not my day," he said under his breath. Sarah passed him a gun, and he scurried to the back to help Pops while she drove. "I hope it didn't kill them."

*

Kyle, meanwhile, had taken a cab to the industrial district. He strolled casually until he found the building he was looking for.

"You take me to the best places, John." he said.


	4. Chapter 4

_Kyle came out the front door, mostly because he was forever done scurrying like a rat._

_This was a new world, still intact and full of all the things his parents had told him about._

_And it also had John._

_Yes, Kyle was definitely ready to collect his earnings._

_So he was unconcerned when the lights of the police car flashed right on his face. He didn't even stop counting the money he'd gotten out of the automatic cashier._

_"Freeze!" one of the policemen yelled at him._

_Kyle put the money away, and lifted his hands in mock surrender._

_"What's the matter, officer? I'm just looking for my kid. Have you seen him?"_

_The policeman lowered the gun slightly, his expression between wary and baffled. "What?"_

_"Nevermind. You'd know if you'd seen him. He's pretty memorable," he said, affably. He kept walking, hands in the air, until he was right in front of them._

_He didn't tell them to scream. They didn't have time for it, anyway._

_*_

_He was walking pass the alley, flipping the keys of the police car on his hand, when he noticed the man._

_Not the homeless man he'd seen on his own arrival; this was a young man, tied up like a turkey and gagged, who was painstakingly making his way out of the alley inchworm-style._

_Further back, there was another man similarly bounded, only he was inconscious and on full uniform._

_Crawling guy was only clad on his underwear._

_Kyle walked toward him; the guy made a terrified noise through his gag and went very still._

_Kyle crouched at his side._

_"Hey," he said, grabbing the guy by the hair to force his head up, "do you remember the face of the guy who did this to you?"_

_The guy tried to shake his head; but Kyle only gripped him tighter._

_"Don't lie to me. Do you?"_

_The guy nodded, eyes wide._

_"By any chance, did he look like this?" he said, shifting to look like John._

_The young man did a fine job of howling in terror, even through the gag._

_"Fine. I suppose you'd have no problem providing a description, then," Kyle said. He shifted his hand into a blade, and cut through the ties. While the man was cowering, trying to get away from him, he threw the car keys at him._

_"Run, don't walk, officer," he said, and headed to the main street to haul a cab._

*

John couldn't say he wasn't surprised when the T-1000 jumped from the hood of the car to try to claw its way into their vehicle. Like he'd said, fucking deja-vu.

He blasted the damn thing back into the car, and then the car as well for good measure.

The unrelenting wave of images that acompanied the explosion, in the other hand, he couldn't have been ready for even if he'd been expecting it.

He saw the explosion in the magnetic field, the blast that almost took half his face; the massive, extended explosion of the first Judgment Day.

All the screams and the deaths.

_Kyle's charred corpse between the wreckage of Skynet's main base._

If someone would have asked for the details of what he thought had happened, he'd have said he screamed fit to tear his throat.

But what really happened was that his eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell back without making a sound. 

"What happened to him? Did he get shot?" Sarah said, pulling over.

Pops shook his head. "John Connor appears to be having some kind of seizure. It could be a side-effect of his repeated exposure to the time vortex, or even to be in an timeline foreign to his own."

Sarah climbed on the back, and motioned for Pops to leave her room next to John. "We can't take him to the warehouse if he's like this," she said, pushing his hair from his forehead.

Pops considered this. "There's a motel nearby. He can rest for a few hours, if the T-1000 doesn't find us."

"Alright," Sarah said. "You drive, I'll stay with him."

Pops leaned over John, and pulled his eyelid to peer at his eye. "In this state, John Connor presents a tactical disadvantage to us..." he started. 

John, still mostly unconscious, swatted at his hand, making an effort to open his eyes. "Bite me, Bob. You have to take care of her, she's my mother," he mumbled, before passing out again.

Sarah looked down at him, and back at Pops. "What he said."

Pops took the driver seat without further comment.

*

John could confidently say he'd seen better days; but the sad thing was he'd also seen worse, so waking up in an acceptably clean bed with his mother by his side wasn't all in all that bad.

But blacking out in the middle of a fight ranked pretty high.

"What happened?" he said. He sat up. "This is _not_ where we were going. We can't be in a crowded area, who knows how many people..."

"Calm down, we lost the T-1000." Sarah said. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I don't think it's a good idea I try. Are those _scented candles_?" John said, squinting.

There was a silence. 

"I thought the smell would wake you up," Sarah said.

"But _why_ are there scented candles in a motel room?"

"I thought Kyle Reese would eventually bring Sarah here," Pops said, and the bastard didn't even look apologetic. Sarah crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Pops said he knew there was a motel nearby, not that he'd rented a room, for the record," she said.

John covered his face with his hands, partly as an 'oh my god' gesture and partly to block the smell.

"First of all, since I understand you raised her: eww. Besides that, Kyle hates lavender." he sat up more urgently at that. "Oh God, Kyle. Nevermind the T-1000; _he_ will find us."

"Which will be even more of a disaster if you keel over again when that happens." Sarah said, sitting at the foot of the bed. 

At least the motel wasn't so crappy not to have a tv.

"Fine, but could you please blow those off before I use them to set you on fire?" John said to Pops, nodding at the candles.

Sarah snorted. "I might even help you," she said.

John watched her follow his movements. She was glaring at him, but there was fondness on her eyes.

"No, you wouldn't," he said. She turned to look at him. " When _I_ was a child, another T-800 saved my life. I wasn't with him as long as you've been with yours, but..." he shrugged. "There's something different about them."

"Yes, there is," she said quietly. Pops turned toward them and gave them a skull's smile.

"Although some are more special than others," John said slowly. "Really? Ten years and that's all you've got?"

"We've been busy, what with the running for my life and...!" she started, but then cut herself. John gave her an inquiring look. "You rest," she said, grabbing the remote. "We have time."

She started searching for the news, and it wasn't long before she found them.

"On the other hand..." she said, staring at the tv, and at the identikit on it. Its resemblance to John was more than a little passing. 

Officer O'Brien had a very good memory, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All set up and no action makes a reader grumpy, I know (at least it does to me), but on the other hand I'm pretty confident I'll update tommorow, so no hard feelings? This has plot, I swear!


	5. Chapter 5

John had taught Kyle many things: how to hide from the Terminators, how to fight, how to recognize at first sight if something was useful or not when they eventually got the machines to retreat from what had once been the major cities and they could scavenge the remains.

He even taught him how to fly helicopters and planes.

Now, he never taught Kyle how to program a time displacement unit, even though now Kyle was pretty certain he too knew how to do that.

But that was no longer a problem. Skynet had been kind enough to fill the gaps.

Kyle entered the final modifications with a flourish, and exited the building, whistling. 

It was always easier to follow someone if you knew where they were going.

*

"I don't even exist and I'm in the system. I'm beginning to think what hit me in the time displacement unit weren't colliding timelines, but an ancient curse." John said, curled in the back of the truck in a defeated lump.

He'd given a quick clean-up to his injuries (none of which were still bleeding, except for the bullet graze from Sarah's shoot at the store), and they'd fled the motel in a hurry. Thankfully he'd still been out cold when they got there, so Pops had carried him from their vehicle and nobody had seen him enter, but they weren't about to tempt their luck any further.

"I'd laugh, but at this point I'm not even sure you're joking," Sarah said. Pops drove the truck to a halt, and she grabbed her gun. "We're here."

John jumped out as well, and looked around. "Not to criticize, but this is a little too big from a confrontation with a T-1000. We could easily get separated and..."

"Then don't get separated," Sarah interrupted him. "It's not ideal, but we need the room, so the..."

If they'd had more time, John would have also said leaving the truck outside had been a bad idea, which became patent when the T-1000 blew it up, then proceeded to impale Pops to the wall in the subsecuent confusion.

*

John and Sarah shot at the T-1000, enough to let them room to run further inside the building. 

"Go that way, this way is dangerous!" Sarah said, waving for John to follow an opposite direction. 

"I said we shouldn't get separated!" John said, re-charging. 

"It will follow me! Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" She said, and took off running.

John cursed, and made to follow her, when the wall just _went down_ next to him. He covered his eyes and took a step back.

Kyle emerged from the hole, dusting his clothes off.

"I think she's got it," he said conversationally. "I mean, I've seen how this plays off. Have you? Do you want me to tell you? I could tell you so many things."

John pulled at a big power line that was hanging, half falling off the wall, and stuck it on Kyle's neck, then shot him in the head for good measure.

Kyle fell back, spasming, even as his hand jerkily tried and failed on pulling the wire out.

John stared at him for a few seconds, his expression a complicated mixture of emotions.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said. Then he shook himself, and went to find Sarah.

Just a few seconds later, the power short-circuited, and Kyle pulled the now dead wire out and got to his feet. There was smoke coming off his frame.

He smirked, even as his head was slowly pulling itself together.

He followed John, without hurry.

*

"Sarah! Sarah, we have to leave!" John said.

He saw her standing at the far end of the room, and went toward her. On the other side, the T-1000 walked out as well, wearing his face.

"Sarah, Kyle is here! He attacked me!" the T-1000 said. 

Sarah turned her head and looked alternatively at them, wide-eyed. But her confusion only lasted a second. She locked eyes with John, and her gaze went down to his arm.

"I swear they get dumber with every changing timeline," John said. The two of them turned and shot at the T-1000 in perfect synchrony. "I'm bleeding, dumbass."

*

The T-1000 went down, but only for a second. It was already pulling itself together, when there was a commotion near the door, and Kyle entered the room.

Dragging Pops by the neck like a puppet.

" _Now_ that I have your attention," he said, stopping next to the T-1000. Pops was struggling on his grip. "Oh, be still, you relic," he said, and did something that made the joint of the T-800's neck creak sickeningly.

"No! Let him go!" Sarah screamed.

John took a step forward. " Kyle, please, you don't have to do this."

Kyle let go of Pops. The older Terminator fell to the ground, his hands twiching weakly.

"You're right, I don't. All you have to do is come with me, willingly, and everything will be over. We could fullfill our destiny, and be together. Don't you want that as well?" Kyle said, extending his hand. It was glowing, just as Skynet's had been when it tried to attack John, and John could see himself, for a second, in Kyle's same posture.

Offering the same impossible choice.

"You know I can't," he said, and the hoarseness of his voice only had a little to do with his sudden dizziness.

But while this was taking place, Pops had managed to struggle to his feet, and he ran out of Kyle's reach before he could stop him, limp and all.

"Sarah, now!" Pops screamed.

Sarah shot to the ceiling, and a rain of acid fell over both the T-1000 and Kyle.

Kyle looked at John with a mixture of surprise and forming agony, his hand still stretched toward him.

"No!" John screamed, unthinkingly, and he would have tried to reach him if it hadn't been for Pops pulling him back.

The T-1000's shrieks were utterly inhuman. 

Kyle, eerily, melted in silence, his eyes never leaving John until he finally fell down.

"John! John!" Sarah said, shaking his arms. John was still standing behind Pops, his eyes fixed on the mess before him, pale as a ghost. He wasn't even blinking. She slapped him. "Come on, soldier! We're not done!"

John composed himself, and his face became a expressionless mask. He looked down at her, and nodded curtly.

"Are we ever," he said, bitterly. He turned around, and marched out. Pops and Sarah followed him.

*

Sarah and Pops showed him their makeshift time machine.

"Sure," he said. "Being erased from existence or ending up impaled in a light post sometime in the future, what difference does it make?"

He started unbuttoning his shirt, and kicked off his shoes. "Those shoes were killing me, anyway."

Sarah and Pops exchanged a look. "That's the spirit," she said, and went behind the curtain to start undressing. "You so know we have to be completely undressed, right?"

"Unless we want to turn Los Angeles into a crater, yes," he said. "I was in the military, sort of, so..."

"Alright," she said, coming out wrapped in a towel. 

The three of them walked wordlessly to the platform.

"Eyes on neck level," John said drily.

"That's not funny," Sarah snapped.

"I was talking to him. In another timeline, he made a dick joke just about now. Why do I remember that?" he added, under his breath. "Anyway, _don't_."

Sarah, careful to keep _her_ eyes at neck level, widened her eyes at Pops, who just shrugged.

He started the mechanism, and climbed up the platform. The light engulfed them.

*

A shapeless grey mass emerged from the fire pit. It slowly took the form of a man. By the time it was next the smoking time displacement unit, Kyle's features were enterely back.

"What a mess." he said.

He took a fire extinguisher, and put out the remains of the T-1000. He stuck his hand on it, glowing like before, and the charred, barely recognizable form filled up. Its eyes opened. 

"I can't move," it said.

"And I don't need you to. I just need a little bit of you. John also taught me, if you want results, you have to be willing to crack a few eggs. Or skulls," he said, smiling down at it.

He stuck his fingers in its newly reformed head to get what he wanted.


	6. Chapter 6

John had been overly pessimistic on his predicted outcome before going into the time machine (he'd only called it 'piece of junk' on his head), but only by a small margin.

True, neither of them materialized in the middle of something solid, but the middle of a busy highway wasn't exactly an ideal location.

Even less so with a car coming right at them.

He pushed Sarah out of the way, or at least tried to. Pops, less affected by the displacement and with fastest reflexes, moved to stand between them and the vehicle, taking the brunt of the hit.

Unfortunately it'd been coming at a high speed, so the impact was only lessened. It sent the three of them tumbling on the pavement, with the other cars around hitting the breaks in a hurry to avoid rolling them over.

"Where are we?" Sarah asked, lifting her head, her face obscured by her loose hair.

"We're in the wrong year," John said, looking at the cars, and the clothes of the people coming off them. "This is _not_ 1997."

"That is correct," Pops said. He turned at them and looked them over, presumably scanning them for injuries.

They'd caused a big pile-up, and there were already sirens approaching. Whatever year this was, they weren't going anywhere once the police got here.

"He can get away," John told Sarah, squeezing her arm. "Tell him to go and find us later."

Sarah's mouth tightened. "But..."

"He can break us out more easily with _clothes and guns_ ," he stressed.

Sarah, thankfully, only hesitated for a second. "Go," she said to Pops. Pops looked at her. "Don't worry, I'll take care of both of us," she added flippantly.

Pops looked at John, then back at her and nodded. He got up, wrenched his knee back on its socket (so that was the crunching sound John had heard), and took off just as the police was arriving.

Unsurprisingly, the people on his way parted to let him through, most of them with their phones in their hands.

"That will be on Youtube in about twenty seconds," John muttered, as they watched Pops jump the side of the rail.

"What?" Sarah said, but the police was already on them.

*

"2017," John said, once they were loaded in the cage of the police car. He pulled his blanket tighter around himself. "Kyle's been dead 33 years. Or alive for 13, if..." he shook his head. "God."

"You two were close, weren't you? Sarah asked cautiously. "Pops told me he was under your command, but..."

"As close as you can be to someone while lying to them constantly," John said, not quite looking at her. "But still, I..." he laughed bitterly, and winced, his hand going to his side. "That was a tactical mistake on my part. I always knew I would send him to die. Only I never anticipated I would have to be there. I should have known better. But I allowed myself to...And because of that, I don't think I would have been capable of doing what had to be done, myself," he finished. "I know, trust nobody." He did look at her then. "You were always stronger than me."

Sarah put her hand over his. "It wasn't your fault. I'm sorry you had to see it."

John didn't answer. He knew in the original timeline Sarah had been with Kyle when he died, and the two of them had fallen in love already by then. He'd had an heroic death. But now he'd died a stranger to her, merely a predestination turned menace, so John couldn't help but think Kyle didn't deserve to die without someone who loved him there to mourn for him. Even if that someone was the same person who's orchestrated that fate for him in the first place.

The funny thing was, in all the worlds the vortex had pushed into his head, he'd never seen himself without Kyle. It was as if he'd ceased to exist after he sent him away. Or perhaps he _didn't_ want to see what became of himself after. God knew he'd refused to think about it with all his considerable will.

"John? Are you alright?" Sarah said, peering at his face.

He straightened up, and pulled his hand free from her grip, turning to look at the window. "I'm capable of carrying on with the mission," he said. He wasn't about to burden her any further with his mistakes. She was a warrior, and so was he. He wouldn't let everything he'd sacrificed so far be for nothing. "So it's the year 2017, and the world is still here. Obviously. So the timeline has changed on that as well. We have to find out how."

She nodded, focused as well, but there was a lingering shadow of worry on her eyes.

*

On the reception of the hospital, a skinny, balding man was arguing with the two detectives assigned to the case.

"Look, there's no match for the girl's fingerprints, true. She might indeed be a terrorist. But the guy's been identified, and his family showed up already, so there's no way he's your mistery man, O'Brien. Aside from the fact he should be at least 60 years old if he was."

"What? Identified?"

"Yes," the female detective said, smugly, waving the files on his face. "John Reese, former military, currently working for Cyberdyne. His brother Kyle saw the clip on the internet and came for him."

*

Two nurses, a male and a female, were drinking coffee on the staff room.

"His brother showed up," the female nurse was saying. "He brought both their ID's, but you could see the resemblance right away. The poor thing was so worried. He says the guy's a war veteran, so sometimes he gets a little..." she waved a hand.

"Well, he was either that, or a pirate," the male nurse said. He laughed at his own joke, and looked expectantly at his companion. "You know, because of..." he gestured at his face.

She gave him a dissaproving look. "That's not very nice," she said. She straightened up suddenly, a look of alarm on her face.

A curly-haired young man had walked in without knocking.

"You can't be here," she said, "the doctor will call you when..." she hesitated. His expression was friendly, as it had been since he'd arrived, all politeness and concern about his brother's wellbeing, but now there was something unsettling about his smile. "Did you hear..."

"He's the brother, isn't he," the male nurse muttered. He turned around, fake smile on his face. "Hey, man, I mean no harm," he said.

"Oh, those kind of comments have never bothered John. He used to crack jokes about it himself," the young man said, resting his hand on the back of the male nurse's chair.

The female nurse only stared in horror as what looked like a _sword_ came out the male nurse's throat. 

He opened his mouth, and blood flowed out of it; then he slumped forward, face down on the table.

The patient's brother casually pulled the sword - _his hand_ \- out of the wound and picked a napking to wipe it out.

"I, in the other hand, have always been sensitive about it," he said. "Also, I hate waiting. Now tell me where he is."


	7. Chapter 7

Sarah had only scraped her knees and elbows when that car hit them in the highway; but John had fell hard on his side, and, after some prodding, reluctantly admitted his ribs were bruised.

"But they're not broken," he protested, when he realized the doctor was ordering X-rays.

"I'll be the judge of that," the doctor said. He barely looked old enough to shave.

"I've had broken ribs before," John argued. Sarah looked at him. They were cuffed to the examination tables, but at least they'd been given scrubs.

"What's this, some macho thing?" she said. "If you're hurt..."

"I'm not hurt, we're _waiting_ ," he stressed. He pulled at his cuff, and looked meaningfully at her. They'd agreed to wait only so long for Pops; otherwise, they'd go to the safe house where Sarah and him had stashed their stuff for 1997. With a bit of luck, the guns would still be there, some of them even on good state.

A man and a woman, clearly not doctors, entered the room. "Can we interrogate them now?" the woman asked.

The doctor was taking a personal call; he lifted a hand in a 'hold on' gesture and turned his back on them. The woman rolled her eyes.

She picked up the clipboard at John's side. John and Sarah nodded at each other.

"He made me do everything!" Sarah screamed. "It was all his idea!"

"Are you crazy? Shut up!" John said, jumping from the table. He made to go toward her, dragging the metal table with him because of the cuff. The female detective intercepted him and kneed him on the junk. Nobody noticed when he grabbed the clip from her papers and hid it on his clenched fist. The other cop and the doctor grabbed him and pulled him back.

Sarah winced. "Ow," she muttered under her breath, as she grabbed the clip from her own medical board.

"If you're done, we..." the detective started, when the balding man from before entered the room. Behind him, a nurse pushing a wheelchair, flanked by two uniform cops, also got in and went to stand at John's side.

"It's really you," the balding man said.

The two other detectives rolled their eyes in tandem. "This is too much crazy for one single room," the man said. O'Brien ignored them.

"You remember me, don't you? You stole my clothes, and then the other man in the alley...he looked like you. Not at first, but..."

Sarah and John exchanged a wide-eyed look.

"I don't know what you're talking about," John said, as one of the uniform cops uncuffed him from the table.

"Are you going to give us trouble?" he said. John glared at them, but sat down on the wheelchair and allowed him to cuff him to it.

"You can interrogate her right away, but he's going to radiology right now," the doctor said. He took the wheelchair from the nurse, and headed for the door. When they were next to Sarah, John grabbed the side of the table.

"If Pops shows up, go with him. I know where to find you," he murmured to her, before one of the cops pried his hand off.

O'Brien followed them outside.

"The man in the alley, wasn't really a man, was he? When he changed, he seemed _metallic_ for a second..." he insisted.

He was insisting about the alley; and he was clearly talking about Kyle. Which meant he'd seen him after John and Sarah had been gone.

Maybe it would be for the best if he let the man think he'd hallucinated the whole thing; but seeing as he still was a cop, and they didn't know what they would be facing...

"You still have small feet, officer," John said. O'Brien stared at him, open-mouthed. John raised his eyebrows at him and nodded.

"Wait! You're a time-traveller, right? Why are you here? Something bad is going to happen?"

John merely held his gaze until the elevator doors closed.

O'Brien punched the door, frustrated.

*

The doctor had apparently used the excuse to take him to radiology to keep talking on the phone without further interruptions. The one cop to ride the elevator with them also was giving all his attention to his mobile devise.

Just as well. John could work on his cuff without even conceal it.

"So all the women on that room were crazy, right?" the doctor said, finally cutting off. John, already free, looked at him blankly. "I mean, between you and me, your girlfriend's hot..." he started, leaning conspiratoriously down.

John only felt a little bad when he grabbed his tie and headbutted him.

*

Once she told him what he needed to know, Kyle had let the woman live. 

John had always maintained women were more adept at keeping their heads in dangerous situations, and often he'd been proved right. Like now; Kyle had told her not to scream, and she hadn't made a sound. As a reward, he'd locked her in the supply room. After all, he didn't have anything against her. She'd even mentioned she'd been the one to clean up John's scraps when they arrived, so that would be something they could talk about when he found him.

By the time someone found her, they'd be long gone.

The elevator door opened, and what do you know, instantaneous good karma.

John, dressed as a doctor and pushing a wheelchair with an unconscious guy in it, was walking out. At his back, a cop, also out for the count, was slumped on the floor.

"And I was here to bail you out. I should have known better," Kyle said, softly.


	8. Chapter 8

O'Brien knew there was no chance in hell the detectives assigned to the case would let him be present when they interrogated the suspects, let alone interrogate them himself. 

With that in mind, he went downstairs to wait for the people from Homeland to appear; with a bit of luck, he could at least offer to go fetch the suspects and Timmons and Cheung could eat crow.

He was thinking about it when he noticed the big guy. There was nothing wrong with him _per se_ , only after thirty years of being a cop you learned to trust your intincts. 

"Excuse me. Are you lost?" he asked.

The man turned toward him. He was wearing a bright green shirt, with the phrase "We live in a world with smart phones and stupid people" written on it. It was slightly too small for him. Also, he was carrying a huge-ass flower bouquet, and a similarly large teddy bear.

"Negati...I mean, no. I'm looking for my daughter," the man said. He smiled. It was the hugest, ugliest smile O'Brien had seen in his whole life. It only lasted a second; the man's face returned to his previous expressionless state. He tilted his head as if considering. "And my grandson," he added, in a dubious tone.

O'Brien eyed the flower bouquet. "Oh. Oh! Congratulations?"

The man ignored him, and kept walking.

"Wait! The maternity..." but the man was already gone. In a hunch, O'Brien decided to follow him.

*

Sarah had made use of her big eyes and tiny frame several times during her life on the run with Pops. The big eyed teary act didn't work on _Pops_ (neither of them would acknowledge it did, anyway), but it had taken them out of more of a tight spot when shooting their way out of it wasn't an option.

Like now. Sarah probably _could_ take on three armed cops and a nurse, but not fast enough not to alert the ones she'd seen staying guard in the hallway.

"I'll talk with you," she said, jerking her chin at the male detective.

The other detective snorted. "You don't get to make demands..."

Sarah, right on cue, spilled a few tears. She lifted pleading eyes at the male detective. "Please," she said, crossing her free arm protectively around herself.

The man looked at her for a few seconds, pensively; then he chewed at his lip and turned at his companions. "Just a few moments," he said. The other detective held his gaze for a second; then she looked over her at Sarah, and nodded. When the male detective turned again, she rolled her eyes. Sarah concentrated in looking even more helpless while mentally rolling her eyes as well.

"Alright, Cheung, wait outside," he said. 

Detective Cheung exited the room along with the other policeman and the nurse. She and the male detective exchanged a few words on the doors, which was enough time for Sarah to get out her cuffs. She tiptoed at his back while he closed the door, and she jumped on his back and had her arm on a chocking hold around his throat before he could even turn.

The detective's arm flailed back, aiming for the eyes; but for once Sarah's small size benefitted her in something else besides making people think she was harmless.

She put the uncounscious man on the floor, and peered at the hallway.

"If Reese's brother calls a lawyer, we won't be able to interrogate him before Homeland gets here," detective Cheung was saying. She looked at her watch. "How long can an X-ray take?"

Sarah closed the door, holding the gun she'd taken from the male detective in a dead grip, eyes wide. She got into position right next to the door, back against the wall. "Hey, your partner's a jerk, I'll talk with you instead!" she called.

As soon as the detective's head was pass the door, Sarah's gun pressed against it.

"Where did you hear that name? What brother?" she said.

*

Kyle watched John exit the elevator and hurry through the hallway. He ditched the weelchair in an empty examination room, and kept walking, lifting his left hand as if to scratch his eyebrow every time he crossed someone, blocking the scarred side of his face.

Kyle followed him, and managed to get ahead when John stopped as if to read a chart placed on the wall to turn his back on two passing cops.

Kyle stood there, waiting. Further ahead, he spotted Sarah's Guardian. Thankfully it didn't spot him; the obsolete machine pressed the button and waited for the elevator.

Once the cops had gone on their way, John resumed walking. 

Kyle could tell the exact moment he saw him; a complicated mixture of emotions crossed his features, and he actually froze in place, his steps faltering, hand jerking out to grab at the wall as if to steady himself.

Then he composed himself. He resumed walking, determination replacing the confusion on his face...

...and passed him right by, without sparing a second glance.

*

John's subconscious had always been a bastard, it was nothing new. But at least before it had always had the courtesy of waiting until he was, well, unconscious before torturing him with all the faces of the people he'd been unable to save.

Of course, that'd been before he went and scrambled his brain in a reformed timeline, so he guessed all bets were off now.

"Go away," he muttered to Imaginary Kyle.

Further ahead in the hallway, he saw Pops. He discretely pinched his forearm, and when Pops and his hideous shirt remained in front of the elevator, he let out a breath of relief. Truth be told, if the future of the world wasn't still more or less on his hands, he would have been ready to keep walking right into the psych ward and commit himself.

*

The lift finally arrived, but before John could call Pops attention, someone grabbed him from behind, closing a hand over his mouth and dragging him into a broom closet.

Pops got into the elevator.

O'Brien checked the floor and took the stairs.

Sarah, in a oversized police uniform, ran toward radiology.

*

The white coat might have concealed the gun on John's belt to everyone else, but Kyle had known it was there since he'd turned his back on him.

John was fast; he managed to draw it, but Kyle's hand closed over it before he could get his finger on the trigger.

"I'll break your fingers if I have to," Kyle warned him. John still struggled. "If you try to run, I'll kill as many people in this hospital as I can. Maybe starting with your mother."

John froze, and gave up on the gun. Kyle's hand slid down his side, and he took the taser gun too. There were also two scalpels on John's jacket pocket. Kyle held them up, and raised his eyebrows.

"I passed a tray on my way..." John started; but he interrupted himself, and reached a hand to Kyle's face. He pressed trembling fingertips to his temple. "You're...you're real. Oh my God, you..." his eyes focused. He lounged at Kyle with his shoulder, slamming him against the door, and pinned his hand to it with a _third_ scalpel he'd gotten out of his other pocket when Kyle wasn't looking.

"Ow! Stop doing that!" Kyle said. He pulled his hand free, and took the scalpel out of it, glaring at John. John still looked as if something heavy had hit him over the head. "I wasn't serious about Sarah, so quit it. I just..." he let the scalpel fall to the floor. "I guess I should be glad it didn't go to my eye."

"I was aiming for the eyes," John said. He looked down; Kyle hadn't been expecting an attack, so he hadn't prepared for it. His hand had bled for a few seconds, and the nanites were just starting their reparing job. "This can't be. I saw..."

"Yes, I know," Kyle said, advancing on him, crowding him against the wall. "I needed to get you here, so you would..." he pressed his forehead against John's. "Didn't you see? I'm sorry I didn't understand before." he said, and he sounded genuinely regretful.

"Understand? What...?"

Kyle pulled back slightly, enough so John could see his eyes; and then John was sure this wasn't a hallucination, because Kyle's eyes had never been so empty, so _dead_. So desperate.

Memories crowded John's head, and in all of them Kyle's eyes were dead as well, open and sightless, and he wasn't even there but at the same time he was too late, too late, _too late..._

Except...

John blinked, pain exploding behind his eyes. A bit of blood had started to slowly trickle down from one of his nostrils.

"You chose this," John said, chocked and horrified, and not only by the ghost feeling of his own body slowly desintegrating. "Kyle, what did you do?"

"Fate changed the rules first," Kyle said, stubbornly. "I just took the dice and threw them again. I couldn't...How could I let it happen? I'm sorry I threatened you. I wouldn't, I would never..." Kyle said, fervently, cupping John's face between his hands, and John had a flash of his other self, he too with dead eyes and a insane smile, telling 'Survival, that's what you taught me', and it was just as true he'd taught Kyle not to give up.

And Kyle's mission had been to ensure his survival.

"Kyle, _what did you do_?" he repeated, grabbing Kyle's hands and pulling them down.

"I ensured you would exist," Kyle said. "Skynet has always been the cause of you existing, and viceversa, one way or another. Sometimes more literally than others. I just fixed what we'd broken. It'll be done in just a few hours."


	9. Chapter 9

**2017, Then**

_The search team finds the hangar almost by mistake. They're searching for survivors, after getting intel about Skynet suddenly and unexpectedly starting massive executions on its work camps._

_John had no idea this would happen, but he knows what it means. Skynet getting smarter with every time loop, more obsessed, more precise._

_That's what sets up the idea in John's mind (no his worried, sleepless nights watching Kyle's furrowed face, tense even in sleep; or his quiet, almost involuntary track of their days left together. John has already messed with time so much for his own benefit. This is not for him)._

_The unit is incomplete, but if someone can get it working, that's Daniel Dyson._

_"I wouldn't know where to begin," Danny says, standing in front of the platform; but his eyes are already focused and calculating, his mind sorting out the data._

_"Well, you know the saying. When you get the time machine working is largely irrelevant how long it took."_

_"There's no such saying."_

_"Maybe one day there will be. We've got a time machine." John says, slapping his shoulder before leaving him to it._

_"Not yet!" Danny calls after him. But he's starting to trust they will. ___

*

**2017, Now**

John followed Kyle to the parking lot. He'd said he wasn't serious about his threat to _Sarah_ , but there were all kinds of reasons to assume the rest of it still stood.

Kyle tucked his hand in the crook of John's elbow, and John had a second to reflect in how pathetic it was that he didn't instinctively recoil. His fingers did close around the content of his pocket, but that had more to do with finding himself in an open space.

"You have another scalpel in there, do you?" Kyle asked, and his tone was almost of _pride_.

"Plastic fork," John answered, because it wasn't like it was going to be of any use to him anyway. "Don't worry, I'm not going to stab you with it."

He looked around, but there wasn't anyone in sight. Maybe he _could_ make a run for it, and if Kyle killed him at least there wouldn't be...

"Whatever I do to you now will be instantly fixed when you turn. I'd rather not hurt you, but I'll have an eternity to make it up to you afterwards," Kyle said.

Oh, great.

"An eternity in the scorched husk of the world. How marvelous. There's really nothing left of you anymore, is there?" John said bitterly, trying to summon anger instead of the helpless sense of _loss_ that was welling in him.

Deep down, he knew Kyle would have rather die than to be any help to Skynet. But Skynet had found the way to twist him enough so he'd be...this. This wasn't Kyle's fault, it was Skynet who'd done all this. 

Kyle stopped dead on his tracks, fingers digging into John's arm. "But you still know everything about _everything_ , don't you, John?" he whispered resentfully. He dragged him to an expensive-looking car, and pushed John into the back seat. "You decide on your own that it's _better_...!" He leaned over John, and pressed a kiss to his temple. "That doesn't matter now. I fixed it. And now you won't go anywhere, because there's no one left."

*

**2017, Then**

_"I'm running out of excuses as to why no one can see how we get rid of the skin-jobs' remains," Blake says, dragging the last one into the hangar._

_"Hopefully we'd only need, oh, a few dozen more of so," Danny says, and Blake cheerfully flips him off._

_"Danny's just messing with you, we're almost ready. These last few are for the way back." John says, from the corner of the room._

_He's cracking open a T-808's head, taking the chip from it._

_"The way back...?"_

_John and Danny exchange a look. John nods for Danny to follow him to the back._

_**A Week Before** _

_"So that's the masterplan? Travel to the past to prevent Skynet from existing so you don't have to be the chosen one or whatever people has taken to call you lately?"_

_""I think you and I know better than anyone how that's likely to turn up," John says. He runs a hand through his hair. "But...haven't you ever thought, why I'm the leader of the resistance?"_

_"Because you're the only one who was willing and able to fight these bastards and teach us how..."_

_"Because my mother told me I would and taught me how. Because of all the things I learned that came from here. Right _here_."_

_"So? You're going to tell yourself...?"_

_"Someone's already been there and done that. Extensively. What I'm going to do is set up plan B. And plan C, and D, and E..."_

_"You lost me."_

_"You're right, I'm the chosen one. The one who will raise against Skynet. Skynet knows that. That's why it will have one hell of a surprise, if it manages to kill me and there's another person who's been warned this would happen, and has the same training and knowledge I have. Who's waiting fot it. And then another. And another."_

_"What? An army of John Connors?"_

_John smiled tightly. "Wouldn't wish the description on my worse enemy. I'll stick with plan B." ___

*

**2017, Then**

_"Any further advise about these?" John asks, shaking the small plastic bag containing the chips._

_"Yes, don't swallow it," Danny deadpans._

_"You're not as funny as you think you are," John mutters. He finishes undressing, and climbs into the platform. At Danny's sign, he stuffs the bag inside his cheek._

_"If I wasn't worried you'd end up blowing up and taking me with you I'd tell you you look like a chipmunk. Ah ah, mouth closed!" Danny says, and turns the machine on._

_It all seems to have gone smoothly, and Danny thinks John better be back as he said he would, because he'd find him in the underworld to kick his ass if the last thing he ever saw of him was his raised finger._

*

_John leaves over a dozen security vaults, letters and trust funds directed to those who would prove themselves to be his most valuable people in the future, to be delivered in case John Connor dies at any point before Judgment Day._

_This doesn't take more than a year, because Danny has sent people before (after) him._

_Blake is waiting for him when he arrives to the last safe house. He'd be back before he's been gone a week; once he's back, he'll send the people who'd been helping him now._

_Blake had been barely a grown man when he'd helped John and Danny to scavenge pieces of Skynet's technology to finish the time displacement unit; now he's almost John's age._

_John still feels weird when Blake wolf-whistles at him when he starts undressing._

_"You didn't offer sexual favors for carrying on with this mission, did you?" Blake jokes. He raises his hands at John's withering look. "Nevermind; if you had, Reese would have found a way to find out and be here himself."_

_"Jesus Christ, Blake!" John snaps. "Kyle's my...he's just a child." he corrects himself._

_"Right, too soon on your timeline," Blake mutters. "Give it a few years and see if I'm lying."_

_John doesn't dignify that with an answer. He's no longer sure he has a few years, but he's sure it will no longer condemn mankind if he doesn't._

_Plan B, C, D and E. There's no way Skynet gets them all. Not when only John knows who they are. ___


	10. Chapter 10

**2017, Then**

_"Is there something I should tell your boy if you don't come back?" Danny asks._

_John looks down. "Kyle's not my boy."_

_"Man, the fact you know who I'm talking about calls you a liar."_

_John meets his eyes. There's a message destined to Kyle, but he knows now Kyle will never truly believe in it. He'll just pass it on, and carry on with what he thinks is supposed to happen._

_"Tell him I tried," he says. "Tell him I was just a man, as any other, and that his life's no less valuable than anyone else's. Tell him I wanted him to live his life."_

_But John is back in time, so Danny has no need to deliver the message. John is back, failsafes in place, but his own path still unchanged._

_So Kyle still believes in his mission._

*

**2017, Now**

"They were so awed to meet you, John. You always had that effect on people. You didn't leave a recording of your face or voice, so I could have gone as myself, but they had such _hope_ in you. I wanted to give them the real thing, at least for as long as they could have it."

"What?"

Kyle smiled down at him, hand on the car's door. "Plan B, C, D..." he shifted, one face after another. "You should have seen their faces. But it was destined to fail either way." he added, turning back to himself, face serious. "You're not replaceable." 

He took a step back, and took a mobile devise out of his pocket. He threw it at John, and John caught it and looked at the screen. A 28 hours countdown.

"What is this?"

"This is how long you have before Skynet goes live." Kyle said, extending his hand to him again. "You can't affort to go anywhere. You _have_ to be a part of this, now."

"That's your fucking plan!?" John screamed. "You..." he looked down at the screen. There was his smiling face, next to the company's logo, and his name...

"I could have said you were my father, but that's always been more of a thing for you. Funny, considering I know you never really..."

"I loved you," John said, and hated himself on how that was still true, even now at this moment with the fresh knowledge of all the innocent blood on Kyle's hands. 

Kyle tilted his head, considering. "I suppose that's true." He said. "You loved the idea of the poor, loyal, sacrificial lamb." His hand started glowing anew. " _I_ loved you. I always love you. Enough to save you no matter what."

*

Pops shot Kyle with a rifle through a teddy bear, which wasn't by any means the weirdest thing John had seen a T-800 do, but might be the most welcomed one.

John leaned back and turned, stepping over the seats to let himself out of the car through the opposite door.

Another car screeched to a halt next to him; the passenger door opened, and Sarah shot over his shoulder and moved over to let him in.

"Move, move!" she ordered him.

He climbed in. Detective O'Brien was at the wheel.

"You really need to stop stealing people's clothes," he said. "So, the machine apocalypse?"

"You believe us now?" John said, craning his head out of the window. Kyle had dissapeared between the parked cars; Pops was also scanning around.

O'Brien turned the car in Pops' direction; and Kyle suddenly sprung from the hood of an ambulance, over which he had camouflaged himself. He sunk his fingers inside his own leg, took a gun from it, and shot a full round into Pops.

"I believe I saw _that_ " he said. He took speed, and slammed the car into Kyle. "God-damned time travelling shapeshifting robots, fooling the god-damned metal detectors!"

"Where is he?" 

"He's under us!" Sarah said, lifting her feet on the seat and shooting at the floor. A metal blade pierced the space next to O'Brien to convalidate her guess.

O'Brien hit the brakes, yelping, and they got off the car just as Kyle was ripping his way into it from below. He scurried from it to the other side, and stood there, smiling and harmess-looking, tilting his head at them.

"You can't stop me, John. I know you better than you know yourself. I know what you _want_ better than you know it yourself. And I can give it to you. You can be whatever you want. Isn't that what you've always wanted, for the both of us?"

Pops shot at him again, without respite, round after round, and Sarah took car keys out of her pocket and tried them until she found the right vehicle.

"Those are...?"

"The other detective's," she said.

"Works for me."

Pops got in the car as well, and they high-tailed out of there

*

"So he wants you to become...whatever that is? It's some kind of pod-people bussiness?" O'Brien asked.

"Just John," Sarah said, eyeing him. "Why does he think you'll agree to it instead of fighting him?"

"Because he's insane," John snapped. "He's been targetting people from the resistance...that will be on the resistance...he said..."

"Well, if you raised him a gentleman, you have at least two other fights before he expects a definitive answer, I guess," Sarah said.

John stared at her, open-mouthed. Even Pops seemed taken aback by that.

"It's not...he _knows_ he.." John started; then shut his mouth. "Wait. We can't go to your father's warehouse; he knows about it."

"Then where can we go?"

John forced himself to think back in what Kyle said. He only showed him three people. And he said they'd known about him. Which could mean...

"There can be a place. If he'd been smart enough to hide."


End file.
